A post shared by timedrifterbmx (@timedrifterbmx) on Oct 28, 2015 at 11:23am PDT

I am a little disappointed some of my favorite BMX brands no longer seem to have a free sticker web page, but here is a list of BMX companies that send you FREE stickers if you send them a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope):

Found this video a while back on youtube searching for the best way to pack my BMX bike in a bike flight (golf) bag for a flight to California and I found this awesome video (below) and on a side note I did not realize Alfredo Mancuso was part owner of the come up and the onsomeshit store until I watched this video, in this very informative video he shows you:

How to get your bmx bike in the back seat of your sedan, in the trunk of your wagon or hatch back.

How to properly use a roof rack with your BMX.

How to take your bike apart and put it in a “Golf bag” for air travel.

Alternatively for air travel, you can use a great service called BikeFlights that basically ships your BMX bike via Fedex, all you need is a BMX box that typically comes with a complete BMX bike (they have the BMX box dimensions in the drop down menu) or you can use a bike flight bag (golf bag)and they can match or beat the cost of you checking in your bike at the airport. I have used the service and it is really simple and straight forward.

I have realized that social media, namely Instagram to be more specific, is the BMX life line these days and if your new to using Instagram or any Social media there is a few practices I have noticed with positive vibes for the most part.

I was using Tumblr when I first started posting my pictures and videos of my BMX riding and it is still great but I found that Instagram gets way more exposure in the world of BMX. The reason I gravitated to Tumblr is because it has way more posting options as far as animated GIF, Video embedding, multiple photo support, etc. but what drew me in to Instagram was a contest to win a bike for reposting a picture and tagging it, and that’s when my eyes opened to where BMX shines the most which is Instagram.

Use tips and observations for Instagram:

Hashtags are important and the most important is #bmx if you want your fellow BMX riders to notice you, be sure to put at least #bmx when you post to Instagram.

Gaining followers by Likes: Instead of cherry picking and only liking posts of your favorite riders and brands in your feed that you follow , search for #bmx and see what’s there, and like all relevant BMX posts and ignore the bullshit, you might see some creative stuff or wild stuff or some unknown shredder doing something amazing, and I know there’s a bunch of brands that do this almost daily like Cult, Stranger, dead krow army and Merritt to name a few and they gain followers and brand loyalty consistently, and this practice of searching for #bmx also keeps you in the know and is the real pulse of BMX which is really the most current as far as news type stuff, you usually hear about a new event on Instagram before anything else this way too.

New Followers and Following back: This is tricky because some people follow you and when you follow them back, they turn around and unfollow you which is annoying, thankfully there are apps that let you monitor this type of stuff like InsTrack app, so my advice with new followers and following them back is do not follow people that do not have at least 90% BMX posts in their profile otherwise you are just another pokemon card to them, so be sure to check your Instagram tracking app to see if they were trying to play you.

More exposure: Link all the other accounts to your Instagram account so when you post a picture or video with Instagram you have the option of posting it right from the Instagram app to Tumblr, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter accounts and a few others from other countries which makes it easy to post once.

Longer Video: Now if you think Instagram 1 minute video is too short, it’s seems a lot of people gravitate to YouTube and Vimeo and more so some are able to monetize YouTube, but just like with twitter there is very little exposure with those platforms alone compared to using Instagram when it comes to the BMX community, use Instagram to promote your video because you usually hear about a new full length video through Instagram anyway.

Tip from Kevin Washington:If someone is browsing thru hashtags, the videos won’t auto play and all they will see is the cover, a good cover would be the middle of a trick, so be sure you pick a good video cover when posting.

So if your new to the BMX-Instagram game, hopefully this gives you a good overview.